The Galapagos - A 5 day cruise (Part 1)

i started this morning with a business class flight to the galapagos (as i'd had to change my flights last minute when my original cruise got cancelled) which i can assure you, is not a bad way to start the day :) 

i met our guide and a couple of fellow passengers at the airport and we made our way to the dock area and then onto the yacht, The Darwin. the rest of the passengers are on a later flight. i have a small cabin on the main level of the ship which i'm sharing with a german woman named ellen who speaks limited english.

our first hike was that afternoon on isla mosquera which is a tiny island near isla baltra. we landed on the island and everyone was a bit awestruck at the number of sea lions, their proximity and their lack of fear/interest in us. we wandered on the trek and saw more sea lions, some yellow iguanas which are endemic and a couple of yellow finches. i took so many pictures today - i can just imagine how many i'll have after this 5 day cruise is finished :)

we motored a bit in the night which meant i didn't sleep fabulously but it's hard not to be happy when the views are as awesome as they are :)  today we had two walks at different locations on isla sante fe. highlights include heaps more sea lions, some new bird types and black land iguanas.  in between our hikes, we went snorkeling. the ocean is pretty chilly but the underwater is well worth it!  we saw a couple of sharks, a sea turtle, a couple of manta rays and a variety of fish.  our snorkeling guide is an ex-fisherman who now works in tourism so unsurprising, he knows there to find all the fish :) 

tonight we motored in more open water and i started to feel a bit seasick (and i innocently didn't bring any seasickness tablets). about 20 minutes into the trip, i was outside, feeding the fish my dinner!  the majority of the passengers were sick at some point in the night as it was a bit rough.  i didn't trust myself to go to bed and so i spend some time sitting outside at the stern of the ship, trying to calm my stomach.  i was joined by one of the crew who chatted with me until about 1am when we both decided it was time for bed. the funniest part of our conversation was about "brunch" - he was quite perplexed by the concept and i spent a lot of time trying to explain it to him.  it was quite cute :)  

    

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